Friend Thief
by The Inked Pen
Summary: He was her best and only friend. She wanted to be up there on stage with Scoot but she was a coward. She wanted to yell and scream. Tell the audience what they really were, stupid and selfish. She wanted to applaud but she only stumbled to the friend thief and laughed.


**A/N: Why are there not Natalie fanfics? None, zip! No one has dared to take up the Mantle of the dark eyed red-head. So here I go, lifting like Atlas, the burden of fanfiction.**

**Warning: swearing (though not excessively) towards the end.**

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"I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it."

~Marilyn Monroe

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_There was too much on her plate, that's what she had told him. With her dark eyes twinkling with mischief she let him follow her. And they disappeared from the chaos of the party._

O

"What's up with you?" Natalie asked.

Scooter had dark shadows under his eyes that were just covered by a coat of concealed, obviously applied last minute. She could recognize the slight differ from his tan skin. It was most likely someone else's. Natalie had grown up with the lessons like this. Analyzing body language, status', emotions, who in a vast sea of people was unhappily married or having an affair.

People with weakness and Hale didn't even seem to realize that he was exemplifying vulnerability. He looked tired and with a sharp pang Natalie missed that little annoying cocky guy she had known all her life.

Turning to look at her she felt the weight of his glaze. It was still as mesmerizing as it was when they were younger. Not that Natalie had ever cared but how at sixteen she had to give him a little credit. He was, and if a younger version of herself had ever been told her her-own thoughts at that moment right then and there she would have not believed it. Scooter was, with no better words, pretty darn hot. However that didn't mean that she would suddenly start going weak in the knees or all that junk. She was Natalie and just because the snotty best friend got taller didn't mean he wasn't still the super-hero obsessed boy.

For a fleeting moment his eyes wondered the room, pausing at a large portrait of Hazel and at times in the crowd. The party goers all dressed in their best with Perls and gems. Following his quick eyes she scanned the room.

Across the room was a girl, like so many before her that was allegedly 'Scooter's Girlfriend'. Natalie had heard the same from almost every girl (or guy) that she had crossed paths with. Short and cute in a black dress visibly uncomfortable. She showed her unfamiliarity and several attempts to mask the lost expression that kept cropping up on her pale face.

She seemed legit. Natalie didn't know why she knew that. Was it the way she seemed to cower in the crowd or the way she picked at her dress. So like a candle in the fog, she led Katrina Bishop through the masses of funeral 'grievers'. Not knowing that this was the girl who stole her best and only friend away.

_Before she could say anything though he grasped her hand and motioned for her to follow him._

O

They were to young children, a nuisance to all and by quote of many reliable sources, menaces to society. In a puffy pink dress she skipped down a long corridor with Spider-man in tow. A plastic crown slipping down her head and wand swinging dangerously by her side. The boy paused at times to aim his plastic web-shooter at the ceiling. He pretended to concentrate and then jumped into a crouching position.

The girl pointed her wand at an unknown foe. Waving it with such velocity the small antique table didn't stand a chance. The boy springing from one piece of furniture to another. They didn't creek but dissolved the blow making anyone looking on to wonder how many more blows the chairs and side tables could stand.

Hazel Hale watched them from the corner of her eye in her study. Laughing and leaping loudly. Battling out the epic fight between the never defeated team of Fairy Princess and Spiderman VS the sofa. They were best friends, regrettably also most likely each other's only friends even close to the same age group. She had to work hard to keep her lips pressed together and expression neutral.

The gray man in front of her was presenting to her business reports of which Hale Industries had suffered a blow from their long time competitors, Whistler Corporation. stocks had dropped by half a million. Sighing and taking her attention from the children she got to work. Signing papers and wondering how to raise the overall presentment and improve.

O

Scooter had always been sensitive and the Old Woman's death took its toll. He passed a bottle in her direction. Hooking arms with lazy smiles it was bottoms up. The store room hazed and her vision tunneled on Scooter. Still going with the bottle to his lips and letting it drip on to a suit that Natalie knew wasn't cheep. She had stopped drinking of the reasonable need to breath. Scooter seemed to have lost the necessary human quality as he downed the bottle. draining it dry.

They would be in for hell when they got back. Was it the classical music coming from the showroom or the accumulation of the family just being together all all that tension. Natalie would never know but at the moment it was just them and their loud laughter as they stumbled back.

It was with satisfaction that she watched to look of horror spreading on Kat's face when Scooter appeared on stage, at any other time she would feel sorry for ol'Kitty but to be honest she wished that she was right there next to him. Good for him, take it back! Make all the dumb ungrateful people wish they were never born. But even drunk she cowered in the crowd and stumbled over to the despaired girl almost unseen in the masses of Hale relatives. She wanted to be up there on stage with Scoot but she was a coward. She wanted to yell and scream. Tell the audience what they really were, stupid and selfish asses. She wanted to applaud but she only stumbled to the friend thief and laughed.

_They stood in a court yard back to back laughing like they were still young_

_Like they were still seven, unaware at the new change and loss_

_Natalie completely oblivious to what would happen next _

_Because it was impossible to her, it was_

_unthinkable. They were friends_

_Still best friends after so_

_many many years_

_forever_

_and_

_always_

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**A/N: I've wanted to do a Heist Society fic for the longest time and finally I've panned this out. Ally Carter is such a freaking genius! Her characters are brill. I can tell that we will be seeing more of Nat in the future. Natalie is fantastic. Such a intricate and interesting character. I cant even**

**Always Wring,**

**-Rrit**


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